End the humanitarian crisis in Yemen!

End the humanitarian crisis in Yemen!

01 June 2017

Joint declaration of the Peace Working Group and the Middle East Working Group of the European Left Party

The European Left Party warns that in war-torn Yemen a massive humanitarian catastrophe is ongoing and European and NATO countries share the responsibility for this development. For about two years, a Saudi-led coalition has been imposing a blockade on imports into the country. This has had a devastating impact on the Yemeni people and economy. The blockade is assisted directly by the US-military and indirectly by NATO and EU. The so-called anti-piracy-missions in the region effectively assist in upholding the blockade. Billions of dollars of arms exports to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States enable this alliance to continue bombing Yemen. The Saudi air force alone is responsible for destroying dozens of clinics. These war crimes have to stop immediately!

The public sector is no longer able to pay health workers and teachers, and the private sector is collapsing. Yemen depends on imports for 90 per cent of its food. The blockade, the bombings, the violence on the ground and restrictions to humanitarian access, as well as the continued destruction of civilian infrastructure in violation of humanitarian law, is turning Yemen into a country where an entire population soon will be dependent on assistance. Half a million children are at immediate risk of death from severe malnutrition. Millions more could follow. The so-called international community ignores the dramatic situation and continues to assist the Saudi-led coalition. This complicity must end! The European Left Party demands an end to arms trade with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States. The European countries must provide the United Nations with the funding they need to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. In order to facilitate a political solution of the civil war in Yemen we ask for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, an end to all foreign military interventions, including the US-Drone-war, and a lifting of the blockade!